Translating the international adoption dossier: focus on the home study report

In 2018, the Italian Commission for Intercountry Adoption authorised the entry to Italy of 1394 foreign children (CAI 2019). Despite its crucial role in authorising “the taking in, nurturing, and rearing of biologically unrelated children in need of protection and care (Post 2004: 68)”, this institution is not the sole enabler of international adoptions in Italy. It also depends upon the work of translators, who process and transpose the international adoption dossier for international adoption agencies (Post 2004: 69-70). This relatively new text genre contains all the documents required by the native country of the adopted child. They include, among others, legal texts such as certificates from the Judicial Records Register, bank declarations containing financial information, reports written by a psychologist, and reference letters of all sorts. The dossier, thus, gathers texts pertaining to different LSPs into a single document playing a vital institutional role. In light of this, the present paper draws on authentic Italian-language material to study the translational challenges posed by this hybrid genre. The study focuses on the home study report, drafted by the psychologist working for the adoption agency to inform authorities in the child’s home country of various details regarding the prospective adoptive parents. This document is the first text the translator is faced with. It contains financial information, medical terminology, psychology notions. Therefore, it tests knowledge of specialised vocabulary, understood as “an essential component in a translator’s competence” (Garzone 2006: 13). Moreover, it imposes the adoption of pragmatic strategies (Baker & Saldanha 2009: 284), as sensitive bioethical issues are continuously dealt with. In this respect, the home study report can be considered illustrative of the whole dossier, as it introduces the translator to an adventurous but treacherous translation terrain, offering invaluable research opportunities in academic contexts.